FDA to intensify fight against sale of medicines at market places

Mr. Roderick Daddey-Adjei, Volta Regional Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) has said the Authority would intensify its fight against the sale of medicines at market places.

He said, consequently, the FDA undertook an operation at the Mafi-Kumase market in the region to seize medicines displayed on tables and those being sold by hawkers.

Mr Daddey-Adjei told the GNA in Ho at the weekend that the operation under FDA’s surveillance schedules was carried out jointly with the Volta Regional Office of the Pharmacy Council.

He said the seized medicines, registered and unregistered, orthodox and unorthodox, included analgesics, antibiotics, tropical preparations, aphrodisiacs and other exotic medicines.

Ken Owusu, Senior Inspecting Pharmacist of the Pharmacy Council said the operation would go along with education to alert the public on the dangers associated with using drugs at un-designated places.

Mr. Geoffrey Arthur, Senior Regulatory Officer of the FDA, who led journalists to inspect the impounded medicines, said the medicines were potentially toxic, and needed to be kept under certain conditions, and certainly not under humid and dusty conditions on tables.

He said some of the drug peddlers were itinerant and could hardly be traced in the event of any effects of the drugs on users.

Mr. Arthur said the FDB was investigating sources of seized medicines some of which were not branded.